Congress president meets 2 leaders, busts rebellion being hatched in party’s Bihar unit
Congress President Sonia Gandhi successfully busted a plot of rebellion being engineered within her party unit in Bihar, by summoning two leaders PCC chief Ashok Chaudhary and legislature party leader Sadhanand Singh here on Thursday to her residence.
A Congress leader here said that 14 out of the 27 party MLAs had given signed letters to Chaudhary extending support to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, thereby splitting the party. But they needed at least 18 MLAs (two-thirds) to escape the anti-defection law.
When the rebel group was trying to convince another four MLAs to join them the news was leaked to senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad last Monday when he was in Patna to attend the rally organised by the RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav. Acting swiftly, Azad and party general secretary C P Joshi met the MLAs and collected affidavits from them, that they were forced to sign the letter extending support to the Nitish-led government. Azad soon after returning Delhi apprised Mrs Gandhi, who acting swiftly, summoned both Chaudhary and Singh to Delhi.
The MLAs told Azad that some senior state leaders were engineering a revolt to reclaim their ministerial births. "The timely action by the party high command has nipped the rebellion in the bud for the time being," said a leader. Party leaders here believe that it was second time after ensuring the victory of another senior leader Ahmed Patel from Gujarat that they took victory from the jaws of the BJP successfully, which had ensured elimination of Congress from Bihar.
Earlier the faction of the Bihar Congress, led by state president Ashok Chaudhary, had given a miss to the anti-BJP rally convened by the RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. Soon after meeting central leaders, Chaudhary denied there was a rift in the party. He said they discussed strengthening of the Mahagathbandhan. "We are going to revive the Congress party in the state. We will organise a state-level meeting regularly for this," he added.
Emerging out of the meeting, senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad asserted that the party is united in Bihar. "The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) rally which happened in Patna was wonderful. Such rallies will keep happening in Bihar. The Congress is united in Bihar," he said. Besides Azad, Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma and CP Joshi also attended the meeting. Sadanand Singh, while admitting that party MLAs were upset at the recent political developments in Bihar also denied jumping to JD (U). "This talk of MLAs quitting is hypothetical and I can't comment on this," said senior Congress leader CP Joshi, who also attended the meeting.
A Congress leader, however, said the situation in Bihar unit of Congress has reached a tripping point. "A group of Congress MLAs was waiting to switch over to the ruling party (JD-U). The rebellion may have been stemmed due to the intervention of Congress president, but is only a matter of time, the issues will crop up again," he said.
Another Congress leader said the assessment of a large section of their workers in Bihar was that the association with the RJD chief Lalu Yadav, involved in corruption cases along with his children, will affect the growth of their party and credibility. It is believed that Mrs Gandhi in the meeting stressed that an alliance with Lalu was need of the hour for evolving a strategy in fighting the BJP.
Just days ahead of crumbling of Grand Alliance, Ashok Choudhary had travelled to Delhi to meet Rahul Gandhi, to inform him about Nitish Kumar's "secret talks" with the BJP. But, sources close to him said, he was kept waiting for three days.
In a move to keep Congress leaders in Delhi on tenter-hooks, Nitish Kumar has not asked Congress leaders, who were ministers in his government -- like Ashok Choudhary -- to vacate the officials' residence. The crises have come at a time when Congress faced a revolve in the poll-bound Gujarat last month. A similar rebellion is staring its face in another poll bound state of Himachal Pradesh, where also Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has crossed swords with the party unit chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and party high command in Delhi.
TROUBLED TIMES
- A Congress leader said 14 out of the 27 party MLAs gave signed letters to PCC chief Ashok Chaudhary, extending support to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, thereby splitting the party.
- Crises comes at a time when Congress faced a revolve in the poll-bound Gujarat last month
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